Abbott voices his opinion on accents and politics

Tony Abbott claims that the Liberal and National parties will always have a ‘strong Australian accent’. Can he be serious? Aidan Wilson sounds things out.

In an apparent swipe at an ALP member with a thick Scottish accent, Tony Abbott yesterday made the bizarre claim that the Liberal and National parties will always have a ‘strong Australian accent’.

Here’s what he actually said, as reported by news.com.au (emphasis added):

We believe in a strong, home-grown policy. We believe in strong local candidates. That’s what you’ll always see from the Coalition under my leadership. We will always speak with a strong Australian accent.

It’s likely that he’s using the term ‘accent’ as a metaphor for something like focus, orientation or emphasis. Indeed, my computer’s built-in dictionary gives ‘emphasis’ as the third definition for ‘accent’, after the two more fundamental senses that we all know; a distinctive, usually regional characteristic of one’s voice, and a prosodic emphasis placed on a syllable in speech.

So he means that while the ALP imports its politicians and therefore presumably, its politics from the UK, the Liberal and National parties are home-grown, and are made up of local people with local interests and concerns.

Others may want to comment on that, but I’m a linguist; not a geopolitical scientist. So for the purposes of this blog post, I’m going to assume he meant ‘accent’ in the first sense.

Clearly, this is silly. This is a coalition of parties that comprises parliamentarians such as the Oxbridge-esque Christopher Pyne, Belgian-born Mathias Cormann who sounds like the villain from Lethal Weapon 2, and of course Abbott himself who was born in the UK!

The ALP of course can’t claim exclusive Australianness in their ranks either, what with MPs such as John McTernan and Doug Cameron. And Gillard herself was born in Wales as we all know – although her thick accent more than makes up for this.

I am of course being facetious in the above two paragraphs. The reality is that discussing what accent a politician has in their voice, or an entire party for that matter, is totally irrelevant to their ability to govern. We saw a similar discussion back in 2010 when Rudd was challenged and deposed as Prime Minister by Gillard, which brought her, and her voice, under more intense scrutiny than anyone has faced before or since in Australian politics.

Fully (sic) ran a couple of posts about it at the time (here and here); the overall point of those posts, which I reiterate here, is that one’s accent, just like their attire, the size of their derriere, marital status, religion, ethnicity, sexuality and so on, are totally irrelevant to their politics.

Abbott is proving again that he is a conservative, uninformed, negative tosser. He simply says the first thing that comes to mind that will damage the Government without analysis, reflection upon accuracy or common sense. Yet it appears Australia will vote him into power. Heaven help us!

Thanks Jason; I’d wrongly assumed McTernan was an MP without checking (although I didn’t explicitly name him in the post, it was clearly in reference to him).

I’m told he’s our answer to The Thick Of It’s Malcolm Tucker, which I find quite amusing, as ever since I watched that series I can’t shake the thought of there being a Tucker-esque advisor maintaining tight control over the PM and cabinet.

Assuming Abbott is able to hear the variety of accents within his party (Corman, Jensen etc.) and able to understand that a non-Strine accent doesn’t undermine one’s credibility as an Australian, this is just idiotic verbiage.

When refer to these people in your article you used all their proper names that is full name,when coming to the Prime Minister you use Ms Gillard’s last name,is this a sign of disrespect or just another Crikey ploy as as happened in the past

David, that was not my intention at all. I tend to use full names when a surname isn’t entirely sufficient. I also thought that I’d mentioned her once previously, which I now see was mistaken. I tend to follow most journalistic style guides in using full names for the first reference and then a surname only in subsequent references.

Pyne has an Oxbridge type accent ? I thought it was twat type gay accent but maybe I,m getting confused by what he says rather than how he says it . Matthias I have trouble understanding though his thoughts in text might show he has intellect but I haven,t read anything of his . I think Abbott has a very strange way with words and certainly not an Australian flavour . Just because a person is sick does not mean they are pure of heart in regard to Bernie Banton . How about his comments regarding his daughter and her gift ? Maybe Abbott should start with himself .

Noticed any new political parties lately whose preferences might be garnered by an “accent’ on “Australia”?
Might be a cringe away from all that alleged “Foreign” funding (and control?) emanating out of the US fundamentalists?
Or is that a wince from a politically hurtful truth?
One thing is certain, Abbott’s flibertigibett anarchy of the last three years has sealed up any funding from “Australian” businesses, who are seriously insulted by his blathering nonsense; leaving “foreign” funding as his last recourse for the election.
Won’t go down very well with that new “Australian” party!
And, those who don’t want Scottish accents in particular, do something about giving them back their flag while you are at it.

He is English – married to a Kiwi and reminds me of job interviews in the UK pre the Beatles. I had a strong Welsh accent and a creditable business qualification but was told my accent would never get me a good job. I am happy I emigrated to Australia and rose to the top of my profession even though I still have a Welsh accent.

Linking Christopher Pyne with Oxbridge stretches one’s credulity too far. The man is a semi-hysterical twat and a not so gay caballero. Has he ever uttered anything remotely complex in his parliamentary career? Oh, he’s good at getting onto his hind feet and waffling self-righteous cant and hyperbole, but what serious input does he give to his work?
That Tony Abbott can tolerate this cheap little thespian-this creature with a crimp-wave-is an admission of the talentless time-servers who will form his potential cabinet.

Yes, Venise, time to start remembering Senators Richard Alston and Helen Coonan who, as Communications Ministers, gave us Howard’s version of the NBN, ie Nothing!
Talentless time-servers indeed!
It will be a real “Zombie” government under Abbott.
Memo to Mudorch: it won’t sell any newspapers!

Abbott’s “conservative” accent to deliver Cameron-style Austerity and destroy Australia’s AAA rating, just as it has done in the UK?
Austerity puts the accent on stupidity, not yet spoken in ‘Strine.
But come September?
Abbott: the Unnatural Disaster in waiting?
Hoping that an accent on idiocy is absent from the coming election, but after a solid three years of media “Dumbing Down” who can be sure?

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AIDAN WILSON IS SOMETIMES A LINGUIST AND SOMETIMES A CYCLIST, AND OCCASIONALLY BOTH. HE WAS BORN AND RAISED IN SYDNEY BUT NOW LIVES IN MELBOURNE AND IS CURRENTLY A GRADUATE STUDENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE. HE HAS WORKED ON TWO AUSTRALIAN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES OVER THE PAST SIX YEARS AND IS KEENLY INTERESTED IN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE EDUCATION. VIEWS EXPRESSED HERE ARE HIS OWN AND ARE NOT NECESSARILY THE VIEWS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE.